Reporting Services installation question

[Shab]

We have Windows 2003 server with SQL server Enterprise with sp3a installed on it. It also has IIS and ASP.Net installed and configured. When we try to install Reporting Services (doesn't matter what edition) we don't get any options to select the parts that we want. The installation skips all options, does not ask any questions and when it is done, it says it was successful but all we get is help files.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Shab

 

[Catadmin]

You need to install Visual Studio 2004 edition for it to finish setting up. Then you access Reporting Services through the Visual Studio setup, not through SQL Server.



Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
Beware the error of pre-emptive poultry inventory!

 

[Shab]

Hi Catadmin,

Thanks for your reply, but I am not clear on what you suggested. What do you mean by Visual Studio 2004 edition? We have VS .NET 2003 and then I am not sure if we have an additional license of VS for the server.
Do you mean I can get to the Reporting Services installation through VS setup?

Thanks,

Shab

 

[Catadmin]

Visual Studio (and truth be told, it could be 2003 edition, but I thought it was 2004) needs to be installed and I think the .NET version is the one.

Open it up and see if you can access the SQL Report Designer. The designer and all other tools except for the help files are hiding in that interface. I know because I just did an install about a month ago using a trial version of VS.

But since that is at home, and I'm currently at work, I can't remember how I got to the report designer after I opened up VS. @=/ If you still can't access it, lemme know. I'll check my setup and home and come back with more tips.



Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
Beware the error of pre-emptive poultry inventory!

 

[Catadmin]

Shab,

I checked. VS.NET 2003 is the trail version I installed on my machine to get SQL-RS up and working. Of course, when my trial version runs out, I won't be able to access the Report Designer, but I only did it to learn the RS basics on anyway. @=)

Hope my info helped you out. Since I haven't heard back, I'm assuming you found the Report Designer component okay.



Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
Beware the error of pre-emptive poultry inventory!

 

[Shab]

Hi Catadmin,

Thanks for your reply. No I haven't been able to install reporting services on my server yet. I have the report designer on my computer (a client machine) and I can open the designer.
On the server however, there is no need for the designer and I should be able to install the server components only including a report manager (ASP.NET page), a windows service and a web service.
When you install reporting service report designer on your machine, you can create reports and preview them but you cannot publish them until you have a server setup.

The problem is that once I start the installation, it does not let me pick any options like it should. For example the next button is already checked at on screen and it just goes through it as if it was preconfigured. There are no .ini filed that I am aware of on the CD.

Something might be wrong with my server, but I cannot think of anything now...

Thanks,

Let me know if you have any ideas,
Shab

 

[Catadmin]

It didn't let me pick any options either, ISTR. Remember that Reporting Services 2003(?) is essentially a beta version of the RS they are going to release with SQL 2005. So there are a lot of flaws to it that they are supposedly going to fix before it comes out with 2k5. Not sure if this is one of them, though.

I hope so, though. I really really really do NOT like RS as it has been released. It "pre-chooses" too many options while you're designing the report and makes you go back and fix things. For instance, if you choose to Sub-Total while building a report, it automatically sub-totals each and every last Int or Number related column & record, making you go back and take off the subtotals of the ones you don't want. So if you have a column called WorkOrderNo., it'll total the work order numbers!

So stupid, IMHO. I much prefer Crystal where I can tell it what to subtotal and it won't do "extra" behind my back.



Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
Beware the error of pre-emptive poultry inventory!